(Information on her survivors was not immediately available.) That same year she married Kenneth Errair, who had been a member of the singing group the Four Freshmen. They had three children and divorced in 1955, leaving Ms. Withers married a Texas oilman, William Moss Jr., in 1947. As her contract with Fox ended, she starred as a peasant girl in Samuel Goldwyn’s “The North Star” (1943).
#Josephine the plumber movie
It was made into the movie “Small Town Deb” (1942). Withers wrote a story for herself, under the pseudonym Jerrie Walters.
#Josephine the plumber series
And sales of Jane Withers paper dolls, hair bows, socks and mystery novels similar to the Nancy Drew series earned her more money than her movies.Īs she entered her teenage years, Ms. Withers was in sixth place on theater owners’ list of the Top 10 box office stars, despite the fact that she performed only in B movies. In “45 Fathers” (1937), she was adopted by a group of old men.īy 1937, Ms. In “Paddy O’ Day” (1935), her rescuer was Rita Cansino - soon to be renamed Rita Hayworth - in her first leading role. Withers played an orphan in most of her films. After two years of department store modeling and bit parts, she was cast as Joy Smythe in “Bright Eyes.” When Jane was 6, the family moved to Hollywood. By the age of 4, the pudgy child with the Buster Brown haircut was singing, dancing and imitating Greta Garbo billed as “Dixie’s Dainty Dewdrop,” she had her own local radio program. Her mother, a movie fan, picked Jane as a name because she thought it would look good on a marquee. Jane Withers was born in Atlanta on April 12, 1926, to Walter and Lavinia Withers. “The minute they slapped me in ‘Bright Eyes,’ everybody just yelled and waved, they were so happy. Withers told Norman Zierold, the author of “The Child Stars” (1965). Withers starred said it all: “The Holy Terror” (1937), “Wild and Woolly” (1937), “Rascals” (1938), “Always in Trouble” (1938) and “The Arizona Wildcat” (1939).Īt the end of most of her movies, “just to satisfy everybody, I get a good spanking,” Ms. The titles of some of the films in which Ms. She was the antidote to the movie’s star, Shirley Temple, the always cheerful, always obedient, always smiling orphan. In her first major movie role, in Fox’s “Bright Eyes” (1934), the 8-year-old Jane played a spoiled rich kid who wanted a machine gun for Christmas and took a ghoulish delight in sending her dolls to the hospital. Her death was confirmed by her daughter Kendall Errair. Withers is survived by her daughter Errair and three other children.Jane Withers, a top child star in the 1930s who played tough, tomboyish brats in more than two dozen B films and achieved a second burst of fame as an adult as Josephine the Plumber in commercials for Comet cleanser, died on Saturday in Burbank, Calif. Withers reportedly had about 8,000 dolls but many of them were sold at auction in August 2004. She had a vast trove of dolls including mini replicas of film and radio stars from the 1930s including herself, Temple, Snow White and the Lone Ranger. She told the Long Beach Press-Telegram, “I can be at a market and I’ll be talking to somebody there about a can of peas and all of a sudden they’ll say, ‘I knew that was you! I recognized your voice right away.'”Īccording to the New York Times, Withers was also an avid teddy bear and doll collector. Withers’ distinctive voice made her recognizable years after the ads stopped airing. She also acted in several hit television shows including stints on “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “The Love Boat.” As a 13-year-old in 1939, Withers was invited to make a permanent mark in Hollywood history by displaying her handprints and signature in concrete outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.Īfter getting an early start in Hollywood, Withers later began acting in commercials and came to be known for her role as Josephine the Plumber in commercials for Comet cleanser during the 1960s.
As a child and in the span of only three years, Withers starred in five films - 1937’s “The Holy Terror” and “Wild and Woolly,” “Always in Trouble” in 1938 and “The Arizona Wildcat” in 1939.
The 20th Century Fox film came out in 1934 and saw Withers playing the role of Jane, a rich kid who delighted in tormenting her toys and wanted a machine gun for Christmas - the exact opposite of the film’s star Shirley Temple, who played her typical role of the adorable, upbeat kid, despite being an orphan.
Withers’ first major Hollywood role came at just 8 years-old in the Shirley Temple movie “Bright Eyes,” a breakout role for Withers that set her on the path of playing rousing, tomboyish girls in films throughout the 1930s.
Withers’ daughter, Kendall Errair, confirmed her death to the New York Times. Jane Withers, an actress on both the silver screen and television commercials, died Aug.
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